Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stuffing apparatus for manufacturing sausages or the like.
Description of the Related Art
Sausage products are manufactured by automatically or manually stuffing a material such as meat, i.e., a stuffing material, into an artificial casing such as a cellulose casing or a collagen casing, or a casing of an animal intestine such as a sheep intestine or a pig intestine.
A conventional stuffing apparatus is shown in FIG. 13 (front elevational view) and FIG. 14 (plan view). A stuffing apparatus 1 includes a box-shaped, substantially rectangular main body case 2 and a similarly box-shaped, substantially rectangular pump case 10 formed as a unit separate from the main body case 2, and the following, among others, are arranged on the main body case 2: a stuffing nozzle 4 for stuffing a material such as meat, i.e., a stuffing material, into an empty casing (not shown); a casing feeding device 5 for automatically loading the empty casing on the stuffing nozzle 4; a stuffing nozzle rotating means 6 for rotating the stuffing nozzle 4; a braking mechanism 7 which engages the outer periphery of the empty casing and presses the empty casing in a direction toward the outer peripheral surface of the stuffing nozzle 4; a pincher device 8 which is a conveying device for feeding the stuffed casing with the material stuffed therein forwardly (in a direction away from the stuffing nozzle 4) and squeezing it; and a metering pump 9 for metering and feeding the material into the stuffing nozzle 4.
Mounted on the pump casing 10 are, among others, a conical hopper 11 into which the material is charged from above, a lift arm 12 for charging the material into the hopper 11, a material feed pump 13 (disposed underneath the bottom portion of the hopper 11 and indicated by broken lines) which is provided underneath the hopper 11 and has a pump chamber and vanes which are not shown; and a pump drive motor 14 for driving the material feed pump 13.
The material feed pump 13 and the metering pump 9 are connected by a material feed pipe 15; a predetermined amount of the material is continuously fed from the material feed pump 13 to the stuffing nozzle 4 via the metering pump 9; while the shrunk empty casing loaded on the outer periphery of the stuffing nozzle 4 by the casing feeding device 5 is being rotated together with the stuffing nozzle 4 and the braking mechanism 7, the material in the stuffing nozzle 4 is stuffed into the empty casing which is pulled out and extended forwardly; the stuffed casing with the material stuffed therein is constricted by the pincher device 8, and a twist is formed at that constricted portion by the rotation of the stuffing nozzle 4 and the braking mechanism 7, to thereby manufacture sausage products or the like having a predetermined length.
As described above, the conventional stuffing apparatus 1 is constructed such that stuffing nozzle 4, the casing feeding device 5, the stuffing nozzle rotating means 6, the braking mechanism 7, the pincher device 8, the metering pump 9, and the like are provided on the main body case 2, the hopper 11, the material feed pump 13, the pump drive motor 14, and the like are provided on the pump case 10, i.e., a unit separate from the main body case 2, and the material feed pump 13 and the metering pump 9 are connected by the material feed pipe 15 having a long length. Further, in the case where the pump case 10 is situated on the side of the main body case 2, the length from one end portion of the main body case 2 to the distal end of the lift arm 12 becomes 3590 mm. Stuffing apparatuses in which the main body case 2 and the pump case 10 are formed as separate units are known in JP-A-1983-73508 and WO/2004-520077.
Incidentally, the provision of the main body case 2 and the pump case 10 as separate units entails that the pump case 10 is required separately, which results in a higher product cost by that margin and requires an extra space for installing the pump case 10.
In addition, since the length of the material feed pipe 15 connecting the material feed pump 13 and the metering pump 9 becomes long, the meat quality of the material undergoes a change in quality in the course of feeding the material, a decrease in the amount of material meat fed occurs due to a drop in the pressure of meat fed through the material feed pipe 15, and the amount of material remaining in the material feed pipe 15 after completion of the stuffing operation becomes large, resulting in the waste of the material by that margin.
In addition, since the floor surface of the worksite where the stuffing apparatus 1 is installed has inclination and unevenness, a difference in height from the floor surface is likely to occur between the metering pump 9 mounted on the main body case 2 and the material feed pump 13 mounted on the pump case 10. If the height difference is present, the material feed pipe 15 becomes difficult to be connected to the metering pump 9 and the material feed pump 13, and the operation of detaching and attaching the material feed pipe 15 at the time of the daily cleaning of the stuffing apparatus 1 becomes time-consuming.
In addition, since the material feed pipe 15 needs to be detached and cleaned, if the length of the material feed pipe 15 is long, the material feedpipe 15 becomes correspondingly heavy, the detachment and reassembly after cleaning are made difficult, and the cleaning is made time-consuming and troublesome.
Further, since a display unit 16 having various switches 16a and a display 16b for driving the material feed pump 13 is provided on the pump case 10 which is disposed at a position distant from the main body case 2, an operator S needs to move to that position to press the switches 16a and confirm the display 16b, so that the time and trouble of the operator S increases and the operating efficiency deteriorates correspondingly. It should be noted that a display unit 17 having various switches 17a and a display 17b concerning the various devices provided on the main body case 2 is provided on the main body case 2.
In addition, a vacuum pump 18 for setting the pressure within the pump chamber of the material feed pump 13 to a low level to facilitate the flow of the material and a trap 19 for trapping a portion of the material, which is sucked together with the air when the pressure within the pump chamber is set to a low level by the vacuum pump 18, are provided in the pump case 10. The material which is trapped by this trap 19 needs to be removed by the operator S. However, since the trap 19 is provided in the pump case 10 disposed at the position distant from the main body case 2, the operator S is necessitated to move to that position to remove the trapped material from the trap 19, so that, likewise, the time and trouble of the operator S increases and the operating efficiency deteriorates correspondingly.
Furthermore, conventional stuffing apparatuses for automatic stuffing are designed for exclusive use for automatic stuffing, and consideration is not given to manual stuffing. Therefore, in the case of performing manual stuffing, an exclusive apparatus needs to be prepared separately, which results in higher production cost by that margin.